"I am telling you Ecka, we trawled the area immediately after we became aware of the explosions in Sedina B-8. Unless CLM took his pod away, there were no sign of Ahriman anywhere. And I seriously doubt that CLM has any more love for him than we do after all from what we can gather he tried to abduct one of their members."
"Tis nae good enough Surb, an ye kenn it. Ah need mare proof or Ah'll keep em o tae list a terrorists."
"Well, we did find a lot of pieces of flesh roughly corresponding to a single person. But something is wrong with the DNA. It is too short somehow, too clean."
"Ah kennt it. He is still alive ah tell ya."
"Yes sir. At least we haven't heard anything from KAOS since they got hammered. I guess CLM is good for something?"
"Aye. Och, is operation FNG ready?"
Surbius cringed, he hated the name of the operation but Waldoze and John Eldritch had planned it and as such they had chosen the name. At least Surbius was certain that the mission would be a raving success; it was right up their alley.
"Yes Sir, it is ready. We only need to brief pilot Hortan and get a go from Buzz. Fluffy and Vardonx have called in ready."
"A go frae Buzz?"
"Yes Sir, something..... spectacular I am sure."
Ecka chuckled, somehow he knew that whatever John and Waldoze had planned would be devious. That merited a helping of Phylactis Delicht.
###
"Hey Hort, wait up."
Hortan turned and waited for Waldoze to catch up to him. He had just landed from the delivery to Swag Man and he really couldn't remember if it was illegal to ship to members of CLM. His face and chest started to redden and he looked into the deck.
"What's up buddy, you look all sick. Are you okay? I really need to talk serious business with you mate."
Waldoze stopped in front of him and twirled the propeller.
"Dozer, It was only drinks and food. And it was for a party and I thought that it would be within guild limits."
Hortan was on the brink of tears now. Waldoze grabbed his chin in one of his massive paws and turned the young man's face upwards.
"Hey buddy, what the hell are you talking about? I need you to do the guild a favour."
"Ehm, ok Dozer, anything as long as it doesn't involve weapons."
"That's better. Now, what did you do?"
"I sold Helio Mists, Dark Ladies and pork rinds to the pirates."
"Ha, good on you. With any luck they'll get so drunk they won't fly for days. Except for Leebs who apparently only flies when madly drunk. Listen, I need you to get a hold on Plissken and present him to the initiation ceremony tomorrow."
"What ceremony, I didn't get a ceremony Dozer?"
Waldoze looked to the skies for help and was struck by the muses of inspiration.
"Well that was because you started that little war of yours instead. So we figured that we'd just accept you as is. You are the only one not initiated, so maybe we'll throw you in the pit as well."
Hortan chuckled nervously at that.
"Sure, I'll bring him. What clothes should we wear?"
"Uniform, and bring a spare one lad."
Waldoze winked and moved down to the common area again.
###
The party at CLM to celebrate that Mystic was back and recovering was almost ready. Swag Man had taken care of the drinks and food. Well, even though pork rinds couldn't be counted as food it did fit so very nicely with the Dark Ladies. Yoda made a mental note to find out how he had stolen all that but that would wait. There was only one more thing to do before the party could commence, and for that he needed a couple of pirates. Pirates with knowledge of Itani space and especially the research station at Jallik. He could take Azumi for the local knowledge and Look for muscle. He opened a channel to the combat patrol that was flying in Latos H-2
"Azumi, come in and pack for ground operations. Find Look and meet me in the launch bay in 30 minutes."
"Yes Sensei. Covert or overt insertion?"
"Covert Az, so bring your finest."
He could almost see the broad smile on the pretty face of the young woman.
"Will do Sensei. Out."
###
The TPG SWAT team opened the door warily, with the two front men pointing their 3mm gauss rifles so as to cover the entire room. A whirring of fans was the only sounds inside. As the front me moved in they scanned the room with mini thermal scanners. Over in one corner was a temperature difference and the two team members went over to investigate. A single person was lying in a cradle covered in his own filth; he had obviously been there for a while. The impressive computer array behind the man was showing flashes of something dark and foreboding on all the monitors. The system was turned off but the man stayed unconscious, a permanent fixed silent scream of horror on his face. The documents that were found in the room suggested three things. That the guild had been under contract by Senator Remos at least two times, that at least one assassination in Itani space had been carried out by one of the KAOS members, and that the guild KAOS had effectively ceased to exist with the death of its leader,
